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Nov 5, 2013

Of Malgudi Days And Kashmir

ABDUL WAJID

It was late February in wintry Kashmir. The mercury was
dipping down to subzero and the cold was harsh enough to arrest me in my warm
cozy place. Everything around was catching the snapping cold. Life was freezed
like frozen waters. The dark shady sky overhead was warning of bombarding more
snowflakes, making people lazier because of the winter-blues. I was also a part
of this lazy routinely chore. I started my day late and ended it early only to
add more laziness to my sluggishness.

This routine of me was making me dumb, consuming my aptitude
day by day. However it was only after I received my appointment letter from L&T
InfoTech where I had applied earlier, my life changed drastically. Funnily
enough, I wished for a little warmer place and I got the warmest, Chennai, the
place where I am posted. Ah! And now here I am in Chennai a.k.a. Madras.

At first Chennai turned me ill at ease. I had never been to
a south Indian place before. I knew nothing about Chennai except ‘Dosa’ and Rajnikanth. From last six months, I was
like hibernating in my place but now this was the wakeup call for me. Although
it was a promising opportunity but the trouble to bother was that I had to
travel from an extremely cold place to an insanely hot and humid place. “Kashmir to Kaniyakumari”, responded
everyone in bewilderment.

As I stepped first into Chennai, a chain of trees(read as
coconut tress) welcomed me. Interestingly the architecture around reminded me of RK
Narayan’s lifework Malgudi Days
narrating stories that are weaved around intricate streets, modest houses and
men in their ‘loungi’. It was feeling like the characters from Malgudi Days
have turned live to entertain me.

Well for many people, Chennai won’t seem to be a very
interesting place as far as the expectations from a “metro” city are concerned.
Minus some of the good beaches and few glittering malls, a commoner cannot find
anything more entertaining. But that’s okay. Modestly is what I really admire
about Chennai. The Chennai people, as I inferred, are very modest in their behaviour
and attires accept some “inflexible” guys who strictly confine themselves to the five letters of ‘TAMIL’.

The widespread use of the local language is something that I
found very peculiar about Tamilnadu. The Tamil people literally don’t give a
rend cent to the “national” language. Hindi
influence hence the Bollywood is very negligible as compared to Tamil and hence
the Kollywood. Not a very good example of “Abhin Bharat” (integral India), I
must say. However, a food for thought for Kashmir where the local language is
slowly getting a part of history. Although language is a big barrier here as
the Hindi speaking crowd is apparently nil but I hope to follow it soon.

Food is another big problem after communication for the
north Indian people, specially Kashmiris (excuse my assumption of kashmiris being
Indians here), who find it difficult to gulp down the south Indian food. I
couldn’t find any restaurant for Kashmiri Wazwan although non-vegetarian stuff is
quite flourished specially Biryani that rules the roost.

Another interesting factor added to my experience as I could
draft a similarity between the tamils and Kashmiris. It is the liberation fight
going in the northern part of Sri Lanka by Tamils against the Lankan atrocities,
wining the sympathy from the Indian Tamils and some Kashmiris. After interacting
with some of my Tamil colleagues, I could hear some praise for the slain chief
commander of LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran. The same opinion is not true for my
north Indian colleagues who feel otherwise like many countries including India
that listed Prabharkaran as a chief terrorist. “One man's terrorist is another
man's freedom fighter,” that’s what I inferred. Well the same parallelism between Tamils and
Kashmiris speaks for a good reason for the recent visit of JKLF boss, Yasin
Malik to Chennai.

Keeping the politics apart, many Kashmiris have find their
home in Chennai. Although the environment and the other parameters in Chennai are
altogether different as those in Kashmir but for many Kashmiris it is a breeding
ground to run their business specially the handicrafts. Interestingly there are
market places in Chennai like Mahabalipuram and Spenser’s Plaza, where there
are more than hundred Kashmiri shops in one place.

During my last six months in chennai, I have met many Kashmiri
fellows who have almost been settled permanently in Chennai. Muhammad Ayub from
old city is one such person who is settled in chennai with his family. Running
emporium shops in various parts of Tamil Nadu, Ayub has spend almost three
decades in chennai. His typical old kashmiri face and a long white beard speaks
of his experience. Abdul Rehman is another Kashmiri whom I met in a mosque. Rehman
says he came to chennai some two decads back, married a local tamil woman and hence
got settled there. “Following on his food habits also changed from Noon-chai and
Kander Czout to Idli and dosa,” he said with a smile.

A good reason for this settlement can be that south India is
much safer for Kashmiris if we talk of the politics against Kashmiris like in
rest of the states in India. But sometimes it makes me wonder for how many more
years Kashmiri people will be forced to leave their homes in pursuit of a
“better” living. And now when I am living in my new home of scorching sun and
humid air, I wish for change again. Needless to say this time to a colder place,
Kashmir.